Coffee morning

Every year, all over the country, MacMillan cancer charity holds the "world's biggest coffee morning".  Cancer is something that has touched our family so the coffee morning is always something I try to get involved with - if not baking a cake, then certainly eating it.   As we all know, cake eating for charity is calory-free after all!  

I have made my victoria sponge cake for work a number of times now and it always seems to go down well, so, as it's easy and I don't really have to think about it, I decided to make another.   I always used to make mine with strawberry jam and with cream just in the middle - the traditional way - but Andy suggested back in the summer that real strawberries, sliced, might be a nice alternative.  I hate that he's always right!  And I can't be bothered to fanny about whipping up a tiny amount of cream for the middle, so I go the whole hog and do the top as well! 

I love that, whatever I do in my kitchen, Nigella is always watching over me - like my own cooking guardian angel!

I usually like to put extra fruit on the top, whatever is in season.  My summer ones were all topped with cherries and blueberries, as well as strawberries.  Unfortunately, due to an administrative error - I had gone to Lakeland to buy some moulds to make chocolate hearts and buttons for the top, but had, stupidly, not taken my Lakeland vouchers with me - so frustrating - that I ended up using two chocolate Flakes for the top.  The more eagle eyed will notice there are actually three chocolate Flakes nestled amongst my ingredients, but I seemed to have misplaced one while waiting for the cakes to bake! 

So easy, and yet so effective.  The ratio of gratitude from others to the work you actually put in with cakes is fab - for very little effort at all, you can earn no end of brownie points.  I'm all for that!

Bacton Woods

We discovered Bacton Woods hundreds of years ago when Mum and Dad lived in Bacton and needed somewhere to walk Rusty, their Battersea Dog's Home rescuee.  They had just moved up from Surrey and so needed a new regular walking spot - I remember Sunday afternoons walking with Mum and Rusty with lots of carrier bags tucked in our pockets, ready to collect small logs and twigs for the fire.  I was into foraging even then!  

Now it's become a walk that Finn and I regularly do, especially on days when we're visiting Mum and Dad.  If it's a miserable day, we go to Mum and Dad's first and then come home via the woods so that Finn doesn't end up depositing mud and leaves all over their house.  If it's a lovely day, we'll go to the woods first to give him a good run, so that - fingers crossed! - he is so tired when we get to Mum and Dad's that he lays down and doesn't become too much of a nuisance.  That being good normally only lasts until Finn spies Dad with the biscuit tin and then it's all over!

It's different every time we go, the seasons change, the colours of the trees change, the shadows are different lengths, the light levels change.  But I love it throughout the year - I love that Finn isn't on the lead from the time we arrive to the time we leave - except when we spot the odd horses trotting around.  We're so lucky to have such good dog-walking places to visit.   That boy is spoilt rotten, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Agapanthus

I planted some agapanthus when I first moved to this house four years ago and it flowered the first year but hasn't flowered since, which is such a shame as I love them.  I had some very invasive yukka plants - which I inherited unfortunately - and this year I finally uprooted them.  And, hey presto, the agapanthus is back in all its glory.

I'm hoping they're going to spread around the garden a bit - like the blinking poppies and acquilegias! - so I will keep an eye on them next year to make sure they return.   I do like blue flowers - they're so unusual and fit in with the seasidey look I'm trying to create.   Fingers crossed!

Cotton

Following on from my first granny square blanket, I was really keen to get started on the next one, but wasn't really sure where to start.  Given that this really is my new obsession, potentially I could end up with four or five blankets a year!   However, Andy HATES - with a passion - crocheted blankets.  The beautifully muted heathery colour wool blanket I'd just finished was therefore not to have a home in our spare room - sadly - and is destined instead for either the Craft Room or one of our craft fairs later in the year.   Bearing this in mind, I decided to go and speak to Bryony at the shop to get her view of what would sell - and she immediately said baby blankets in pastel colours and in cotton.  I was straight on to the Wool Warehouse website to see what I could find and ended up with sixteen gorgeous little balls of loveliness.

Not sure I'm enjoying crocheting with it yet - I didn't realise that cotton has a tendency for the strands to split, so it's certainly not as easy to work with as the previous wool I'd used.   However, what I do love about it is its weightlessness - absolutely featherweight - and I'm hoping that prospective aunties in Norwich love it too and will be buying them up by the dozen for their new-born nieces and nephews.  Just so that I can keep my obsession going a wee bit longer of course!

Blanket

Since I became obsessed with making granny squares back in May, following my first crochet lesson at the end of March, I have progressed to joining in colours and making my squares bigger.   My obsession is still as strong, which is why I only allow myself to make one square a day - otherwise I would get nothing else done.

I know that I'm not great at putting colours together - usually, left to my own devices, I would use all colours of the rainbow in all shades and combinations.  However, this blanket was constrained by the colours of the wool I could buy.  I have discovered an on line wool shop who have clearance sales - I know that I wanted something with a bit of wool content, rather than 100 per cent acrylic, and the make of the wool that I went for was Wendy Jubilee, a lovely soft yarn with 25 per cent wool content, and in beautifully muted, heathery shades.   Of the ten colours available, I chose eight - leaving out grey and black, not my colours at all!   So I was left with green, purple, cream, blue, red, pink, light brown and turquoise.  And I have to say I'm delighted with how it has turned out.

I really wanted the blanket to be as random as I could make it - having a bag of wool beside me and just delving in and pulling out the next colour as a lucky dip.   I set up an Excel spreadsheet - I LOVE Excel! - so I could try and make the actual putting together as random as possible.  However, once I was over half way with the squares I needed, then, by necessity, it did become more "designed" than randomly put together.   It seemed that every square I was making had turquoise in it!  I had bought extra of the green and the purple to make the edgings and crochet a border - two of my most favourite colours, to bring the whole thing together.  

And I'm so pleased with it that I have bought some 100 per cent cotton, and also some acrylic in much more lary shades - quelle surprise! - to carry on with this blanket obsession.  I'm totally hooked - excuse the pun!

Garden

Today is the first day of autumn and the garden is in dire need of tidying up - it's all a bit messy and overgrown and in severe need of a haircut.  We've had the most fabulous summer - really sunny and dry and warm - and so now I'm really feeling the cold.  We've had a couple of weeks of rain, bitter cold - I've even put the heating on a couple of times - but this weekend, we have been promised another burst of sunshine and warmth.  Which is why all my bedding is out on the clothes line! 

I really enjoy the seasons changing - and I'm always ready for the change when it comes.  But I do miss some colour in my garden - I love green, but you can have a wee bit too much of it!  

Hevingham #2

Two weeks after our first foray into the world of trailer tent camping, we were back - Mum and Dad trusted Amanda and I sufficiently enough to let us fly solo this time.  The plan was that we would pick up the trailer from North Walsham on Saturday and get it back there on Monday and Mum and Dad wouldn't need to be involved at all.  However, we forgot to take a spanner with us and I didn't have a spanner attachment on my swiss army knife - a massive failing to discover! - so we had to ring them up to come over on the Monday morning so we could take it all down!   I can't remember how we managed to put it up without the spanner though?  Magic maybe. 

The weather was a bit more changeable this time and we did spend more time inside - we very naturally gravitated towards our own side of the trailer - it's made up of two double beds so Finn and I took one side, and Amanda and Sid took the other.  Amanda's side looked like the inside of a Mongolian yurt - with blankets, cushions and fleeces!   In all the inside photos too, there is a lot of wool in evidence!

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny, but we had a bit of a downpour on Sunday afternoon - which was an excellent excuse to dash back into the trailer tent for a siesta!

Another fab weekend, but probably the last camping weekend of 2013.   It did turn very cold overnight and we were very glad of the extra fleeces and sleeping bags.   When we dropped the trailer tent back at Mum and Dad's, they did mention that they booked electric hook up and took a little heater with them. Might be an idea for when we get back from our holiday in October - serious consideration needed though, especially given that it'll probably be dark about six in the evening!  

Thames

We've had such a hot summer and it seems that every time I've planned another section of the Thames Path walk, it's been a scorcher.  Luckily the path is very shady and tree lined, so it's never been very uncomfortable.  This time, Finn and I were joined by Andy which was lovely - we haven't walked together for quite some time now, so it's always lovely when he can come with us.  Although he's quite a task master.  Finn and I tend to have lots more breaks and sit downs - the best bit about walking! - but none of that this time, we were clearly on a mission to get to Shiplake and the pub!

This was a shorter walk than we usually do - just eleven miles - from Marlow to Shiplake.  We started with a bit of logistical shenanigans to get one car to Shiplake (the end) and then the other one at Marlow (the beginning), but it's such a short distance from Heathrow that we were ready to walk before ten.  

A really good day, plenty to look at and lots of sightseeing - I'm really enjoying the Thames Path.  And the best bit of course is that it's totally flat!

Andy and I rather liked this hedge - one day we will have a garden where we can have a hedge cut like a castle!

Two miles from the end of the walk, we headed into Henley - but first we passed Temple Island which signals the end of the Henley Regatta course.  It's exactly a mile from Henley bridge - and glows really brightly in the sunshine. 

We celebrated our walk at the Baskerville Arms in Shiplake with a well deserved pint and fish and chips (me) and steak (Andy).  Perfect end to a fabulous day.