a bit of this, a bit of that and a whole lot of nothing...

That moment when you inhale the fresh air and you can feel it rush down into your lungs with a sharp tang. Enough to make your eyes water and your tail wag.

***

That sentence I wrote nearly ten days ago, I got that far, added a pile of images and then stopped. The story didn't flow and the fingers didn't know what to say, so I shelved it. Life has carried on, both mundane and mad.... so nothing out of the ordinary, I just lacked the 'omph' to write. So, today, on a rather chilly grey Tuesday with a half drunk mug of tepid tea, I shall endeavour to type a little more.

There are, I am relieved to see, signs of spring both at work and in my garden at home. Winter - apart from a couple of particularly Baltic weeks, was more blah that artic although there is talk of a sudden stratospheric warming event making it almost inevitable that winter will return with a vengeance!

Not generally know for my status as a 'Domestic Goddess' 👁️👁️.... I have been both crocheting and baking with reasonable success.

Honey Biscuits - these have gone down an absolute storm with the family, if you like honey, these are definitely worth a try. I haven't managed to take a photo of the ones I have baked, but Youngest's lovely girl has made them and sent this image of a successful trayful of yummy goodness!

The crochet blanket - using the Woodland Ripple pattern by Attic24 in autumnal (woodlandy) shades is gently growing. It is my go-to-keep-my-hands-busy thing in the evenings but after some days at work, all I do is slump with glazed over eyes on the settee!!

Funnily enough, I actually do like sewing in the ends. To me that signals a successful completion to the creation of the blanket.

We've done some cracking good walks recently but I don't want to overwhelm you with one walk story after another. You'll just have to take my word for it and see that Moss's face says it all🌞

Hope the rest of your week is gentle and kind and brings a smile to your face and a wag to your tail xxxxxxx

Well?

So...  What have I been doing? Well.....

Knitting ....

Himself - a moss green moss stitch pullover

Me - a simple scarf in garter stitch with left over wool. It was to be for me to wear at work but Himself has eyed it up, so I may be making another one soon....

And about to start a cardigan for me with chrimbly gifted wool in sea washed denim shades.

Cooking ...

Picture from website

Mushroom and lentil Hotpot - ye gods - absolutely delicious! (Recipe HERE)

Cranberry Muffins (Recipe HERE)

picture from website

Making ...

dozens (and dozens) of paper birds - for work, for friends and for home

Wire flowers and tiny houses to decorate the 'tree' for spring

Wreaths bases for work

Willow plant supports

Walking ...

Miles and miles in the Dales - Himself and I both losing ourselves in blue skies and gentle sunshine 

or in woodlands, breathing in deep earthy scents full of flavour and aromas

Repairing ....

Jeans, harem pants, Wool overcoat

Loving....

That crystal clear scent of the first hyacinth bloom as it swirls around the room

Reading ....

Ichigo Ichie (Hector Garcia & Francesc Miralles) - still loving and learning and absorbing and trying to live by these words - and when I can put them in practise - it seems to make the day so much sweeter!

Also Vesper Flights (Helen Macdonald) - just dipped in and already enjoying it, 

and have Wakenhyrst (Michelle Paver) waiting to be picked up.

Gardening ....

At work mostly - hard wood cuttings, compost turning, woodchip mulching, glasshouse tidying,

 willow plant-support making, seed selecting(buying) 

and happy dancing when I spot a snowdrop in the woodland garden we are creating. 

Last autumn the volunteers and I planted thousands (and I do mean thousands) of bulbs - 

to see them beginning to appear is like a shot in the arm of pure delight.

Learning....

Mandatory training for work - firefighting, H&S, emergency first aid (to include gunshot wounds, pierced eyes, first to the scene responder at a multiple car pile up and removing a splinter from a finger ....) - boy do I feel prepared (NOT!)

www.freeimages.co.uk

Appreciating...

as much as I can, noticing the good, finding that moment of joy

(even when I want to grind my back teeth...!)

So - that is just a little of what I am up to - what you knitting? Reading? Eating? Making? Enjoying?

Go on spill the beans - I love to hear what you have been up to :)

Something to get your teeth into🍪❄️🎄

On Thursday - the only day we all had time spare - we baked our marathon-relay-tag-team gingerbread festive biscuits. Making sure we had enough to share and to scoff, there was a lot of rolling and cutting and cooking. 

Whilst we were waiting for the biscuits to dry, Moss took us for a quick dog-loop before the weather closed in

Once we'd returned there was a bit of a mini panic when I could not find my icing kit, so Himself and I galloped off to purchase a replacement icing nozzle set (which in the end meant going to five (yes 5) different shops until we eventually found enough to get started.

It could be said we had fun! We now have aliens, snowmen, gold and silver stars, festive trees and pigs ... yes pigs!

Despite all the 'taste testing' and 'pre-icing nibbling' we still managed to fill three jars - perfect for sharing😊🍪

And if you fancy a mad marathon baking sesh of the gingerbread kind - here is the recipe....

350g (12oz) self raising flour

10ml (2 tsp) ground ginger *

100g (4oz) butter

175g (6oz) light brown sugar

60ml (4 tblsp) golden syrup

1 egg - beaten

sift flour and ginger*, add sugar.

Soften butter in the microwave, stir in the syrup then add the egg - mix well

knead til smooth, roll out to about 5mm (¼ inch) thick. Choose your favourite seasonal cutters and have fun!

Lay on to baking trays (either greased or lined)

Bake at 190°c  (375°f) for about 10 - 15 mins until golden.

Cool slightly then finish on a wire track

Decorate to your heart's content and scoff!

* I doubled the ginger, added mixed spice and then for good measure a pinch of ground cloves - I wanted a very festive hit in each biscuit!

They don't last long...

Lavender scented shower aromatherapy

 I am still reading (slowly coz only manage to dip in for a few minutes every now and then)  Simple Matters by Erin Boyle. (as I mentioned before I shopped around to find a pre-loved copy at a very nice price).

Towards the end of her book, she shares a simple tip to elevate your daily shower. I gave it a try and was really impressed and so was Himself. So much so that I have made more shower aromatherapy cubes and now have a jar full of them sitting next to the shower for us to use later tonight.

You'll only need a couple of ingredients - Bicarbonate of Soda and an essential oil or two.

For the essential oils, Erin Boyle recommends orange and lavender - I already had the lavender so just used that and I already had a large bag of organic bicarb from our local 'green shop' in the village.

Tip the bicarb into a bowl (I did about a teacup's worth) and add water until it is soft 'sandy' paste - the wetter you make it the longer it takes to dry.

Drop the bicarb paste into a suitable container (the author recommends empty tea light foils - I used an old ice cube maker) and allow to dry. Can take up to 24 hours, I left mine near the wood burner over night and in the morning the soft paste had dried into little brickets.

I then tipped the cubes out onto a piece of silver foil and dripped 5ish drops of the lavender essential oil on each one.

As soon as the essential oil soaked in (was in a matter of moments) I carefully put them into a jar with sprigs of fresh lavender and screwed the lid tight. 

I opened it up again a moment or two ago (about an hour after I made them) and the scent is glorious!

So, later, when I have my shower, I will take one out of the jar and put it on the floor of the bath and when the hot water hits it, the bicarb dissolves releasing the lavender scent which fills the bathroom with such a wonderfully warming and relaxing fragrance, perfect when heading to bed.

If you have small children - please make sure they don't think they are something eat and put them up high out of their reach 😊

#moreblogvember

Chocolate cake

 Well....

Today was wet. My waterproofs are hanging up in the covered back yard dripping in unison, my boots are quietly steaming by the radiator in the kitchen and my gardening gloves are on the kitchen sink - think they may need a bit of a wash before I next use them. I feel damp and although I have changed, I still feel chilled but the job needed doing and could not be delayed any longer - three weeks of wet Tuesdays was getting beyond a joke.

Any hoo - cake - I need cake ... and a mug of tea. 

Talking of cake, yesterday's  chocolate cake recipe as promised. I'd mistakenly listed it as vegan but it is because it is an 'oil' cake completely forgetting it had eggs in it duh! I remember eating chocolate oil cakes in my childhood, however, I don't remember those cakes being as light and fluffy as this one.

As ever I have adapted an existing recipe - I'll put the link to the original and you can decide whether you want to stick with that or give mine a go.

Chocolate Cake

150ml sunflower oil
50gm cocoa powder - sieved
125ml boiling water
2 tsp vanilla extract
125g self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarb
pinch salt
200gm sugar
3 eggs

Juice of one lemon

Icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 170°c/  325°f/gas mark 3

Line/grease a 23cm/9" cake tin - I used a square brownie tin so the cooked cake could be cut into squares

• Add sieved cocoa power to your bowl, add boiling water and whisk until smooth, add vanilla extract - allow to cool
• In a second bowl combine flour, bicarb and salt
• In a third bowl (!!) vigorously whisk eggs, oil and sugar until creamy
• add this mix to the cooled cocoa bowl, mix well, then pour into the flour bowl
• Pour the resulting batter into the lined baking tin
• Cook for 40 - 45 minutes - use a skewer to test, the cake should be cooked but still soft and succulent
• Allow to cool before drizzling lemon glace icing across the top
• Scoff!

I iced it with a glace icing using lemon juice and icing sugar. The combination of the super lemony icing and the soft chocolate cake was - how can I emphasise it enough - a mouth watering experience - absolutely delish. 

And as I said before - I have never had such a light and airy cake before! Quick and easy to make, even quicker to eat. 

Hope you enjoy !

Original recipe is by Nigella Lawson and on the BBC Good Food website

#moreblogvember

#52newrecipes

** thanks to Mrs L - I have updated my waffle and taken out my mistake - thank you!

Sunny Street Flapjacks

 I thought I would share a recipe with you - one inspired by a flapjack I'd had a few weeks ago and thought 'I can make that' and after a few tries and a few alterations - yes I can! 

Welcome to ....

Sunny Street Flapjacks

Pre heat oven to 180 deg c (gas mark 4 - I think!)

Line a square baking tin (20cm x 20cm-ish) with greaseproof paper

• 200gm butter
• 200gm sugar
• 150gm golden syrup
• 100gm chopped mixed nuts
• 100gm cranberries
• 100gm chopped prunes
• 375gm porridge oats

Melt the butter with sugar and syrup. Stir in the cranberries, chopped prunes and nuts, add and thoroughly mix in the porridge oats.

Press well into the lined baking tray, flattening down until evenly spread. 

Bake for round about 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

I cut the biscuits while still warm and still in the tin.

Let them cool initially in the tin, then transfer to a baking rack (all the time beating back Himself who hovers ready to taste test whilst they are still volcanically hot!!)

They are a delicious mix of crispy (the outside) and chewy (the middle) and the sharpness of the cranberries is super tasty in the nutty oaty mix.

Hope you try them - and if you do - let me know what you think!!

#52newrecipes

Delicious (52 New Recipes)

As part of my 52 new recipes challenge, Cheesy pasta bake has become a firm favourite - it has been so popular at home that I have made a few times.

Photo from website

I only just realised that I'd not posted about it when I went to find the recipe on my recipe page and it was not there! So - to remedy that, I thought I would use it for 'Delicious'.

No photos I am afraid - scoffed too quickly and who wants to see a picture of a pile of used plates soaking in the sink 😁

So - here are the details, as ever I made a couple of changes. The recipe says to layer breadcrumbs at the bottom of the baking dish - I did this initially and found that they absorbed all the sauce then stuck to the dish. So now I just put crumbs or small cubes of bread and grated cheese as the final layer before putting into the oven. Delicious!

Will I do it again?  Oh yes, have done already and Youngest and GF have a copy of the recipe and have made it successfully too.

Any alterations? Only the breadcrumbs and the addition of slices of bell pepper and mushrooms.

Link? Cheesy Pasta Bake

Chrimbly count down Link up Part 2

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Wow - it is already our second Chrimbly count down link up party 

Time to share your festive stories

enjoy!

please don't forget to link back to my blog,

thank you :) 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Chrimbly Count down - Baking✵ ✶ ✷

11th December : Baking 

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Himself and the boys have legs so hollow that baking evaporates before it has even had time to cool down, which meant baking large batches regularly became a way of life. Then this summer when lock down briefly lifted, the boys moved out to either start work in a new town or return to uni. Himself remained the sole baking consumer and he has done sterling work!

These lemon and ginger shortbread were as a result of me noticing the biscuit tin was a little bare. Himself had been working outside on the van and the weather (and the van to be honest) had been a little foul and I knew he would need some sort of pick-me-up with his mug of tea. 

They just managed to last until the evening ....... he felt a whole lot better (and is still as thin as a reed!) And if you fancy trying them - they are indeed very more-ish.... the link is HERE

*And since the original baking, I have made a further three batches (I am eating one now with a mug of tea - bliss)

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