An Early Rise

My toes are cold.

I have been up since shortly after 5 o’clock.

Yesterday was an exciting day…more to follow.

Coffee has been drunk, now planning on a cup of tea.

I have a training day today…do I wear my uniform or not bother…hum decisions decisions!

Wilbur is outside in the freezing cold…the reason I was up so early.

Kitty wished to spend the night draped across my neck.

Through the night we have had ferocious hailstorms, thunder and wind.

Hoping leftover stew made on Sunday will be alright to eat for our evening meal later.

Wishing we’d kept the fire in last evening.

Planning the future aesthetic of our living room in my head, and with a tape measure.

Yesterday we travelled to Wales for two reasons…both rather exciting!

This was taken on our way to our second destination.

Anyway, off to put the kettle on again. More details to follow!

Blessings. J. x

A Saturday Tea

Happy New Year to one and all…

We enjoyed this for our tea yesterday…it was just right for a cold Wintery Saturday.

I had thought we’d eat half for tea and have the rest today for lunch…our appetites however thought otherwise!

Made with a packet of puff pastry and some fridge lurkers, with dried herbs atop, eaten in front of the blazing fire it was just what we needed.

I’m aware I haven’t been around these blogger pages much of late. Even now as I try to cobble together a post there are frustrations mounting in my addled brain. My means of computing is seemingly falling out of love with the Blogger platform and makes everything harder than it should be.

Heaven forbid my mind is toying with the idea of Instagram.

I am as yet undecided.

Anyway, stay safe out there.

Blessings, J. x

Merry Christmas One And All.

 Life has been all go thus no time to pop in here for quite some time.

We have a brand new grandson as of yesterday…

Work as usual has been crazy busy,I keep getting moved to a clinic further away from my home.

I realise I should have booked some annual leave over the festive period…guess what I didn’t.

I’m letting go of holding the reins this year for the big day itself…allowing someone else to take the strain…don’t worry we will probably be sorting 31 next weekend.

Time has run out…I am so not ready for Christmas this year…the cake has marzipan on it but as of yet no icing.

Cards have in the main gone by the wayside…and those we have sent have been mainly j Lawson e-cards.

Hope you all survived the recent storms…we had a biggie a couple of weeks ago.

Time and energy both running low so Merry Christmas everyone!

Blessings, J. x

Experimenting

Like many of you I watched the Festival of Rememberance coverage on Saturday evening. I’m afraid it has left me feeling a little out of sorts. My father fought at the battle of Monte Casino and coupled with losing him in the month of November old memories have surfaced. The video coverage of the battle brought home the realities of what so many suffered through and I know the nightmares never left Dad, not just of that battle, however he always maintained that his Italian campaign medal was the one he fought hardest for.

Luckily we finally have a few rays of sun here in Devon, so on the days I am not working I am making sure to spend some time out of doors. I was up early this morning and am more than halfway through my to do list so later I hope to take a quick stroll up the nearby lane.

On Sunday we headed out to youngest daughters for tea, we were not the only guests so for the first time ever I made some doughnuts…strawberry sauce and Holland cream were the fillings…

I weighed each dough portion into 60 grams, instead of the 100 grams the recipe called for, they were plenty big enough, and despite a piping bag disaster I was pretty pleased with them for a first attempt.

The Holland cream recipe made loads and I decided to go for the full amount as apparently it freezes well. Later today I shall see as earlier I made some rich sweet pastry and will be making an attempt at creating some pineapple cream tarts as I believe the Holland cream should go well in them. With a little luck the kitchen won’t end up in quite such a sticky mess as it did on Sunday…when left too long before sieving it strawberry sauce tends to set! Burst piping bags full of cream leave quite a clean up operation too.

Hopefully some will make it to my colleagues at work tomorrow, they would have liked the doughnuts but there’s no way I could make them before work and they don’t fare well overnight!

Right cup of tea finished, time to get back to the list!

Blessings, J. x

A Catch Up Of Sorts

Well well well…

How time has flown once again. For those interested my scarf came second in the knitting competition. It has also caused quite a stir. In all honesty, and not wanting to blow my own trumpet it should have won. What did win had the possibility of not warranting being placed, however the judge is sister to a friend of ours and is suffering from dementia. She has judged the handicrafts for several years. Sadly it appears she gets in a bit of a muddle and possibly recognises a name and puts that first in all classes. Oh dear. it doesn’t really bother me, but it is beginning to look rather strange and I just hope nobody decides to complain to her.

Anyway, other people I know have broached the situation with our friend, who of course is worried about her sister. 

We have celebrated with several of our friends last weekend who joined with us in welcoming the recent Mr. & Mrs. to Devon(Our son and daughter in law). It having been an away wedding was not conducive to inviting people just to the evening do.  Been rather busy, and we’re currently eating up leftovers. 

A day off today has been filled to the brim with computer accounting catch uping!

The washing machine we use to wash the really grotty boiler suits gave up the ghost and so our inside machine has been moved to the pig house to step into the role and a new one has been delivered this afternoon. Currently doing its first load. I hope it becomes a long standing member of the family!

The other week I took eldest grandson to the local pottery for his birthday treat. The scene has been painted and is currently in the kiln!

Hubby on that same day managed to have rather a nasty accident. He was up in the handler bucket cutting a branch when it flipped back and caught his foot. Somehow another branch then took him out the bucket. Luckily he managed to throw the chainsaw away, however there was only four year old second grandson with him watching from the cab. he climbed out and asked if Grumpy was going to get up then asked where his phone was. Poor little chap idolises his Grumpy and it really scared him. It really scared hubby too, he admitted a few days later he thought he’d lost his foot.

We think his foot was fractured however he did not go for an xray. His outer ankle is being dressed every few days by me, luckily I have access to specialist dressings from work, as his wound went slightly  narcotic. I also managed to measure him for some light compression that was safe to apply without having a Doppler.

Anyway, apologies for being absent from your blogs for a while, I hope to soon be back!

Blessings J. x

And Done!

 

All done!

Resting A While

So the weather has resumed its continuation of rain, rain, and more rain, just as it has been for much of this whole year. It just so happens to be the week I chose to take off from work. Big sigh…though I’m not sure quite what I would have got up to if it had been gloriously sunny. My energy has deserted me since falling foul of a nasty virus last week. Little steps I keep reminding myself as I wheeze my way through tasks. I’ve started taking my inhalers again, though the preventative one takes two weeks to get fully working and the instant Ventolin leaves me feeling like a wreck.

Hey ho as they say. With feet currently up and having just finished a cup of tea life can’t be all bad.

I need to complete the scarf I’ve been knitting as it is to be entered in a local show at the weekend. A lovely pattern I thought as I popped it into my Etsy basket, however upon printing it out on ten pages, yes ten, I began to realise its complexity. Should have been wary of the name…Everest! Anyway I now just need to weave in the ends and double graft the two halves together…oh my!

Most of the stitches are twisted…which made for fun taking back if I noticed an error. Something a little different anyway.

I have taken to getting a weekly delivery of groceries, and at the moment have been very pleased with how it’s gone. My first job of this week was tidy the pantry cupboard, a big tick, but I still need to defrost the two chest freezers and they’re in the old pig house so maybe not a job for this weather.

Any ideas as to what I can cook for tea, after two nights of chicken curry which was lovely my brain seems rather depleted on ideas. Knowing hubby will be out a night or two preparing for the weekend’s ploughing match has rather taken my mind off the what to have problem. That and a slightly wooly head.

Autumn has now well and truly begun, logs are in the storage shed and stacked in the rack in the passage…there are also the ones in the fireplace and yesterday was a day for lighting the fire after dinner.  Looking out at the rain, today could well end in the same hue!

I need to make a coffee sponge and some ginger biscuits for classes at the show too, so maybe this afternoon I will float off into my happy place and flick through a recipe book or two.

Looking forward to catching up on your blogs soon.

Blessings, J. x