Blog En Vacances

Hiya All, Just to let you know that Mr P and I are off on our travels with our amazing boiing tent. The car is almost packed and with a bit of luck there will be space left for us two! Golly my wool took up a large space! Good job I have a lovely hubby.

Really been enjoying Great British Bake Off 2015. A group of youngsters have been joining me on a Wednesday night to watch the programme and we have had great fun in trying to recreate some of the food that the competitors have been trying to make. First week was madeira cake. Perhaps this was not quite what we all had in mind............

The girl that made this had just tried to bake the gateaux minutes before the programme started - decided to still carry on and ice and cream it whilst still warm. Needless to say it started to slip around as the heat melted the fillings. It might have looked a mess but tasted scrumptious.

Here's my madeira cake! Bit boring in comparison! Next week was biscuits and we all tried to give them a  go.,

Now this week was bread! Mmmmm this takes a lot longer to make and so some of us opted for a cheeky way out.

My daughter and grandson, Rowan, opted for banana loaf.



This was a very similar tactic to mine own - tea loaf!

Next week is puddings - golly I shall miss not seeing this episode but I guess I will not be feeling this way whilst lying on the beach!

Of course going away means cleaning up and shifting muck out of the hen house. Today I decided to treat the girlies and let them run around the whole of the garden. They had great fun pecking their way through this pile of recently mown grass clippings.

Then later on I found them in the herb bed!

Trouble with the girlies is they will  not let me easily take a picture as as soon as they see me they think I am going to give them food and they come running towards me.

Well I fear it is time for me to say good night and I shall be back in a few weeks. Bye!

Photographs

Yet again another busy weekend. This time it involved a trip to my dad's home and meeting up with my sister. Sadly we don't often get to meet, but it's always special when we do. The three of us went out for a pub lunch and then spent the afternoon in the attic!

Now my dad has designed his attic as somewhere to store items not used very often. He has loft boards on the floor, carpet, made wooden units for the storage and chairs to sit on! Wow so what were we three doing up there with cups of tea? We were looking at old photographs. We saw lots of mom and dads old holidays after I had left home. Then after several hours we eventually found an album with some pictures of us sisters.

Here I am being bottle fed by one of my parents friends. I have a vague recollection of the blow up dog, dingo.

Don't know how old I am but it looks as if my grandma had been busy knitting this jumper. Also didn't realise that I had such chubby cheeks.

Here I am on a donkey, on holiday in Skegness or Weymouth. I loved having those sun hats.

School photographs. Apparently once when the school photographer came I said I also had a brother as well as a sister. The staff went hunting for this lad only to discover that I had got confused and thought that the boy I walked to school with was my brother!

Meanwhile whilst I am busy enjoying myself Mr P was busy cutting shrubs down and came across this nest. What amazed us was the way that the birds had weaved in bits of plastic bags, straw, mud and the green netting is from the divide I use to keep our chickens from accessing the whole garden. These birds are true craftsmen.

Finally finished my Fern shawl designed by Tiny Owl Knits. I am really pleased with my shawl. I then went onto having fun draping it in the bushes!

I shall be looking forward to autumn to be able to wear this shawl. I used double knitting wool but where there is the fern pattern the wool is double thick so it feel very warm across your back.

Have also finished another dress. This time I used a different pattern - Dottie Angel Dress, Simplicity pattern.

Yesterday I wore it to a wedding, was a little scared that some of the sewing would mysteriously come undone - but I needn't have worried.

Wedding on a Monday felt very strange and I'm sure the rest of the week is going to feel as if I'm on the wrong day. Mr P got asked to play the keyboard and I was asked to play my flute for the ceremony, this was such a privilege. Have to say I was rather scared as I had a microphone attached to my flute so that ALL could hear me clearly. Not so good if you make a mistake, but I don't think I did. The weather was gorgeous and after the ceremony we headed off to a gorgeous venue.

Pimms were served.

Inside was a lovely restored barn decorated with pretty fairy lights, flowers, blossoms, buntings.

We enjoyed a delicious meal - including a proper roast beef dinner - gigantic Yorkshire puddings.

Well it was a wonderful wedding and all too soon we had to head down south as both Mr P and I needed to go to work today. I'd like to wish them all the best for their lives they have ahead of them.

Thanks again for popping by.

Whirlwind Weekend - Warning Long Post!

This weekend I had the wonderful privilege of sharing it with my daughter from Northern Ireland. It started with a trip to the NEC Quilt Show - three of us Mrs A, daughter and myself.

Studying the map and where we want to go.

So many quilts to see.

So many different styles.

So much shopping to be done.

 This is a quilt from Mexico. As you look at it closer you can begin to see some of the amazing details.
 

 

Some of the quilts were just soooo amazing that it was hard to believe that they had been sewn.

From the sublime to the ridiculous  well this had us all thinking about chips for tea!

Bit of name dropping - Kaffe Fassett.

Here is Mrs' A's buys.

Here is my daughters buys after the weekend.

Here is mine.

Next was Upton House. Now Mr P and I have been here before but we decided this would be a great place to go with our daughter. The weather was absolutely gorgeous.

This was the view as we ate our picnic. Then we dangled our feet in the swimming pool to cool down.

The house was great to let us all paddle - big thank you to the staff for letting us do this.

Me trying to look cool!

 It seemed like almost reluctantly we went into the house - so much enjoying the sunshine, such a rarety!

House was set up as it was during the war  when the owner transferred his staff from his London bank to work in the safety of his home.

I don't know who this man was but he was brilliant - he made us laugh so many times. Here he is pretending to speak to Winston Churchill and demanding more bomber planes. He made our afternoon even better. If you know him then please say thank you and we think he is great.

Back outside in the garden were masses of butterflies. Here is a peacock, on the left, and a coma on the right.

Time for a cuppa and a trip back home.

Next was a trip to the Toft Alpaca Farm and Woolshop.

I didn't realise they came in so many different colours.

Then big decisions to buy or not to buy?

Of course I did! Next in this whirlwind weekend was a trip to Blisworth Canal Festival

Then we spotted Rosie and Jim

I think we'd all agree with this sign!

We all had an amazing weekend - non stop but great fun. Hope you all had a lovely time enjoying the sunshine. See you all next week.