Today❤️

 Was wonderful!

The internet is a little vague this evening, so please accept my photo of Moss through a small sheet of ice as an aperitif. 

The murmurations? Brilliant, will share soon!

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300

Spent the day in the garden - planted over 300 bulbs (I hate bulbs! coz I keep digging them up! grrrrr), weeded bucket loads of self-sown winter-hardy weedlings and lifted a few tender perennials, potted them up and stashed them in the greenhouse -then in late spring when things have started to warm up again, I can plant them back out ready for summer. Well that's the plan!

Took Moss for a brisk and chilly dog loop - the air was crisp and the sunset sublime. First thing this morning it was frosty so I think Autumn finally realised it was time to move on and hopefully took the damp and dreary days with her.

And the map? I asked Himself if we could go and see the starling murmurations - so we plan to see them tomorrow evening - I can't wait!

Hope you had a gently kind weekend, filled with things and people that made you smile xx

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The dangerous bun diaries

 I have never eaten a chocolate bun with a cake fork before.......

However, today I made an exception. I'd made the buns last night and we nibbled a couple whilst still warm and un-iced.  Today, I made chocolate icing, using the 'add a bit of syrup' method. This gives the finished icing a slight caramelly flavour and the most impressive glossy shine and also helps to distract from the bitter-dry aftertaste that some cocoa powders leave.

I may have been a bit generous when I glooped the syrup...... so, on each bite a slow lava flow of thick chocolate icing oozed generously down the sides all over my fingers and my face and the more I wiped and licked, the more it spread... after I'd had two bites and had to first lick, then wash my hands each time, I resorted to a cake fork.

When, later, I handed them around with cake forks and mugs of tea and received curious looks - I explained 'they're dangerous buns - you'll need forks' they soon understood!

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Small stories in my day

 Friday evening.

Watching the 'Wild Gardener' by Colin Stafford-Johnson a lovely Irish cameraman. We seen quite a few of his programmes and love his gently nostalgic presentation.  He waxed lyrically about the hum and buzz of the insects in his newly created wildlife garden. What I didnt know, his father was the 'Monty Don' of his day and was the first Irish TV gardener.

Eldest and his girlfriend are here for a quick visit (which is wonderful as last time they stayed, I was working and barely saw them).

Youngest has been trying to find a suit for 'The Winter Ball' at uni in December and there is a national shortage of suits - I am not joking - and has caused him some angst trying to find something that is ... a) affordable, b) in the right shade of blue he wants, c) fits him - he is tall and slender d) will arrive in time and not languish at the border or the warehouse or 'in the country of it's origin' ... I really meant it when I said there is a countrywide shortage of suits!

Downstairs is filled with the heady scent of stargazer lilies- Himself bought me a bunch a couple of days ago ... 'just because' 💗💐

I'm tired but can't peel myself off the settee - I might have just to 'make like the cat' and melt in to the cushions..... or I could make the effort, go to bed and curl up under the duvet - think that is the better option!

Just watched tonight's weather forecast and it sounds like winter has decided to step up.... *yay*....

nite nite xxxx

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Leaf kicking

Yeah gods it was wet today - that persistent miserable light rain that drifts around, coating everything in grey and removing the view ... you know the sort..... Any hoo, this morning we were inside doing the final of the chrimbly crafting workshops - as from next week it will be full on festive wreath making.

Which leads to today's waffle - Moss and my wonderfully quirky apprentice and I leapt into a council van (not just ANY van but the one that belongs to our lovely parkie) and we set off to another park on the other side of the town. 

This particular park is very much larger with far more woodland, shrubs and garden than ours so we were there to cut and collect foliage for the wreath making sessions. My appi (apprentice), the parkie and I were dressed head to toe in Hi-Viz dayglo orange and yellow (you would NOT have missed us in a thick fog that is for sure!) and armed with secateurs and long loppers we set about collecting greenery and interesting berries, ivy and twisty sticks.

Moss was super excited thinking she had a new park to run around and explore until she realised she was to wear her long lead and harness and was very firmly attached to me ... cue grumpy dog who did an awful lot of eye rolling in my direction !(🤣🐾)

By the end of two hours we were cold and damp but triumphant as we drove back to work with a truck load of lovely green goodies. The kettle went on and while we unloaded our foliage, two parkies, appi and I sipped steaming hot mugs of coffee, tea and hot chocolate. Tomorrow we will process all the greenery - cut it to size, stick it in buckets of water and then try and find somewhere safe to put it - we have rapidly run out of space!

Thank you everyone for your lovely comments regarding the aromatherapy shower melts - I do hope you try them and find them as successful as I did - I can't take the credit as you well know - however I can enjoy using them and hope that you do too :)

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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 😊

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Day 16 of moreblogvember

It's late, I'm rather tired and I have just been sitting at the edge of my seat watching Great British Bake Off 🍰 it was rather an emotional episode (well it was for me!) 🤣

I don't know if it is coz I am rather tired that I have sobbed through several christmas adverts this evening - Himself thought it rather funny that I was weeping over a delivery truck being tickled and behaving like a reindeer. (yeah gods - get a grip girl!!)  I think I have reached festive saturation and it is still only November gah! 

My knitting is growing - I'm up to the arm decreases - but they can wait - I'm off to bed now - nite nite xx

Tomorrow is another day!

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Sniff sniff

I have a very keen sense of smell - my minor 'claim to fame' is I can (or I used to be able) tell which animal was on the surgery table before I saw them - by the smell of their fat..... (now you were not expecting that were you!)

Any hoo - onto nicer scents. I have just popped a fruit cake into the oven - one that requires all the fruit, spices, butter and sugar precooking in a pot before the flour and egg can be added. There is a deliciously spicy fragrance drifting through the house. It is a warming and welcoming scent and I am sure it will send Himself's nostrils aflare as he walks in!

I have just been experimenting with making mindful 'shower melts' - a natural bicarb and essential oil 'tablet' which you pop on the floor of your shower as you switch on the hot water. These natural tablets fill the bathroom with an invigorating waft of orange or sleep inducing lavender - I shall blog another time once I have used them. 

The washing machine has been churning away as I worked through my wardrobe. I am continuing on my mission to clear away the clutter and simplify my life. The clothes I am keeping which had been squashed behind all the other 'katunda' (clutter) stashed in the cupboard have been washed to freshen up. The weather outside is so dreary and damp that the clean clothing is hanging on the 'Victorian Kitchen Maid' - no I am not being 'posh' I really do suspect it is that old as I received it from a rather elderly gentleman when he had a clear out about 20 years ago ... it had been his mother's - she died when she was 105 ..... apparently it had been in their house 'forever'...   Anywhere this meandering story is going is there is a lovely fresh scent of washing upstairs, I am looking forward to hanging them back in my now virtually empty wardrobe.

Still on with simplifying my life I worked through a wicker basket filled with cables, ex-mobile phones, chargers, laptop cables, scart wires, headphones and laptop to MP3 players (yes remember those?) and other wires of varies vintages and dotages. The ones I recognised - I dealt with and those I didn't were photographed and sent to Youngest who very quickly replied regarding what could be ditched and which should be saved. Good thing he did - I think I would have thrown out far more than I did!

Now it is that quiet half hour before Himself returns from work, so supper is about to be started (Monday's seem to be the only day I am organised or not too tired), I best check the fruit cake, there is a warm and cakey fragrance drifting into the lounge and it calling to me!

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Sunday Sunday - so good to me *

 This morning the house was filled with the scent of baking shortbread biscuits and 'damp-been-swimming-in-the-river' dog..... 

Ideally she would have had a shampoo and set before my folks landed for morning coffee and shortbread oak leaves but there wasn't time (or the inclination TBH) so a little dab of lavender essential oil on her collar worked absolute wonders.

The entire house gently filled with lavender fragrance as her collar warmed the oil and now, several hours later, there is still a hint of it wafting about - nary a river-smelly dog to be smelt!

In the afternoon, despite my very bones feeling weary, Himself and Moss dragged me out for a walk. 

So glad they did. The low light glowing beneath the heavy cloud filled our valley with a warm glow and made the spiderwebs sparkle on the recreation grounds. The air felt clear and fresh and certainly made me feel a whole lot better.

Earlier in the day, the village stopped and it was quiet and still, traffic ceased and heads were bowed. 

Sunday has quietly slipped away. It was a gently good one and it felt right to be home appreciating the flow and ebb of a 'nothing-much-happening' day. Hope your Sunday felt right with you too xx

*the title is a play on 'Monday Monday, so good to me' and is a title I have used before in  March 2018

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And here is one I made earlier

 

No - don't worry we've not experienced a time jump straight to December however we did make four in the end. They were part of a staff workshop I gave to show how to make wreaths. The real workshops will be starting soon (end of November). 

Next week myself and a colleague are off to a neighbouring park armed with secateurs, a flat bed truck (I am not joking) and a council park keeper to cut ourselves enough foliage for fifty folk (not joking about that one either) to make wreaths at our workshops..... 

I am now going to lie down in a dark corner to compose myself.......

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Five things I noticed today

• The finer the rain - the quicker it seeps through and chills me to the bone. It also seems to have a slight metallic scent - it smelt of winter today

• My left boot, when damp, squeaks when I am walking through the main building at work - loudly - to the point of making people look up

• The people I work alongside (the council men who are based at the park) are so kind and generous with their time and their knowledge

• Tea, even if made in my bucket sized heat saving travel mug, does not stay warm long enough for me

• I need to clear out the drains running along the glasshouse as a matter of urgency - the trees are flinging their leaves about in monsoon like quantities.

Have a lovely weekend

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