our walk on the reserve yesterday 26.09.08

thought id share with you yesterday on our walk, it was a glorious day, and you can see the trees changing colour with the autumn, its very peacfull up there, a bit of a hike, but once there just magical, i also picked 2lb of blackberries yesterday.
we have some lovely views from the reserve .

this picture just sums up all the wondrous colours of mother nature.

all the fields around, harvested and ploughed ready for the next planting season, and you can see the trees in the background starting to change.
my OH Paul, first day out for a few days, was feeling heaps better yesterday after his first chemo treatment monday, the doctors have all said other than the cancer he is a very fit healthy man and this is on his side with the treatment and combating (going into remission) of this awfull disease
couldnt resist this maggee may.
i hope youve enjoyed a few pics of one of our havens and all the glorious views from up there.

just cake

thought id make a cake tonight, just basic victoria sponge 6,6,6,3 and fresh pineapple layered inbetween, it smells gorgeous but yet to taste. mind it did take 1 1/2hrs to cook.
had a few up and down days , paul commenced chemo monday, and i think everything came to ahead with us both, very emotional. although we are coping i think very well with the illness itself it is all the unnessesary stress you get on top of it that often (well is) causing the breakdowns of emotions, maybe that is good as we do then release, and i suppose dont realise the full extent of the worry until it happens. (the straw that broke the camels back) i think thats what its called LOL.
but ive sewn and baked and we both managed to take the girls out for a walk today, and since then we both feel a lot happier about everything going on again.

and its my brothers birthday today, so Happy Birthday Duncan luv you loads xxxx

i've had a request from hen as to how i made my oven squares below so here you go LOL

Oven squares

You will need fabric of choice.
Wadding normal quilting stuff.
Old material

I cut the top materials 10x9 purely because the oddments of wading I had came to 9x8 ½.

I put all oddments of wading together and placed inside old pillow case fabric then just zoomed the machine through the middle to hold (as oddments were strips) .
I cut 4 pieces of material 10x9
French hemmed 3 sides
Put wadding inside
Attached strip of matching material to top then folded it and sewed that across so sealing the square, then machined across diagonally both ways with approx inch in-between, and I trimmed any excess cotton threads. I then attached another strip of material folded to make a hook in the corner at the top.
Now there is probably a completely and proper way to do these, well there is and I would think it would be to lay all fabric and wading inside together, then machine across diagonally, (quilting properly) finally making edging or putting edging on the outside.
But as I said I quickly knocked them together.

sunday sunday

here's some oven squares i made quickly this afternoon, my others were getting very threadbare and Paul kept trying to throw them away LOL, well they are now renegated for the BBQ and i have finally made a couple more. i prefer squares to those long glove things as find it easier to carry hot things with them.



and this is what Paul's mum and dad brought over for us today, eating apples, cooking apples and more tomatoes.

have a relatively quiet day today, took the girls out this morning for a lovely walk in my local woods all by myself just me and my girls LOL, had a lovely peaceful walk didn't see a soul about, just how i like it and it did me good, i sat for 5 minutes on my log in the woods on the way back it is so peaceful and serene.
gave me some time to contemplate all the forthcoming events, Paul is starting his chemo tomorrow and i think i was becoming more anxious than he was, I'm now a lot calmer and more together than before, still feel a little quiet in myself but am happier than i was, we will see what the effects will be, they always give you the worse scenarios, which is very scary, i have to be positive for everyone boosting Paul, keeping everything running as smoothly as possible for all our sakes, but there are times i just want to curl up in a corner and forget the whole world, just hide away for ever more, which of course is not practical with an 8yr old at your heels, who needs to go to school and help with homework etc. so you keep going and have to be strong for everyone even if you don't feel like it some days.

friday...............

well ive just realised i havnt posted anything since monday, and its now friday, where does the week go, i think it was only GTM on creative living forum who said the same thing this morning, i know we all get busy bees, but boy the days fly by.
paul said to me earlier when we came back from walking the girls, what a busy little home we have, always making or baking or just doing something. well idol hands and all that LOL, keeps us all out of mischief.
today ive made soya milk tend to make 3litres every two - three days, depending really whether james and i have cereal or toast for breakfast, and then i prepared the remaining apples from our little tree harvest and cooked them ready for a crumble later. also sorted out the chicken stock that i cooked deboning and putting in the freezer for another day, then just got back from our walk which was lovely, made sandwich each for us, and put another loaf in the machine to make. so just the kebabs to make later and the crumble top and to cook.

our walk today was glorious a lovely autumnal day, a crispness to the air yet still sunny and warm not to worry about coats yet, we went to st margarets cliffs today for a change, and glad we did, all the berries are red and elderberries purple all the leaves are changing colour , just gorgeous. i wish id taken the camera. we could see france as clear as day again, the sea was flat with just a slight ripple. lovely, we sat on the banks looking out to sea with the girls close by, mags decided to come and flop behind me and then tils decided to rub her face in the grass down hill towards me until she landed on my lap LOL.
we then walked back over the stye and through the edge of a recently ploughed field, part of the field is always left as fallow land so the grasses grow thick and tall, these are now flattened, mags decided to start bouncing all through the grasses and pouncing in the thicker sections, we keep saying when is she going to grow up shes 18months old now and to see her today you would think only 5months old a real puppy dog. but lovely to see, with all the white butterflies flying around her :)

poetry

a poem i found dear to my heart.

Dark Shadows Fall in the Lives of Us All

Sickness and sorrow comes to us all,
But through it we grow and learn to 'stand tall'-
for trouble is 'part and parcel of life'
And no man can grow without struggle and strife,
And the more we endure with patience and grace
The stronger we grow and the more we can face-
And the more we can face, the greater our love,
And with love in our hearts we are more conscious of
The pain and the sorrow in lives everywhere,
So it is through trouble that we learn how to share.

written by Helen Steiner Rice, Thankfully.

sewing

well i have been very busy today on the sewing machine, i have made 4 pillow cases for the lounge, i part quilted the fronts then made an envelope backing for them, sewed them all together and they are far better than the old raggedy things we had which were well paste their sell by date.



i also knitted a dish cloth the other day, finished it yesterday evening, and used it today in the kitchen, am quite chuffed with this.



and ive made two small bags for james when he goes out halloween night.


i did also make 2 pin cushions, so i have one upstairs now for my sewing machine corner, just need another for downstairs.
and have made two now ready for a swop we will be doing on the creative living forum.

wonderful day

had a lovely day today, i think summers arrived, unfortunately its autumn so a bit late LOL

anyway we've had a lovely day and even lit the BBQ this afternoon, had the last of our bunny burgers with salad, mayo and homemade bread rolls, double wammies, were scrumdiddlyumptious .

i did manage to get the freezer defrosted this morning which was an overdue job jobbed, but still have the fridge to do tomorrow. and paul managed to get the sheds and gate creosoted(substitute) with a little help from james, mind after helping with the first one he'd had enough, so brought him him and scrubbed him down.......... i jest not............ had to get the brush and soap on him LOL but we did manage :)

its been so nice actually being able to sit out the front drinking, cooking ,eating and chatting whilst james and his friends played, how the summer used to be many moons ago.

Halloween fabrics

i just happened to pop into my favourite shop this morning, and came away with three fat qrts of fabric, and some felt to make some lovely Halloween bits and pieces, i might make James a small bag out of the ghostly one for when he goes partying and trick/treat at friends doors on Halloween.



this is a blue purple ghostly one.


and the purple one (i think Leanne will love this one) also you can see a glimpse to the left of the black back ground same design.
arnt they just gorgeous, the purple is slightly darker in real life.

a walk on the reserve today

Had a lovely walk this morning over the local reserve, we were out for 2hours, on route i did manage to take a few pics of the native butterflies, when they condesended to stay still LOL.
it was a lovely day and did paul, myself and the girls maggee may and tillee tot the world of good.



heres maggee, waiting for tillee to reappear.

then once home after the school run i made damson jam, apple pie and roast chicken for tea.
i was going to make raspberry jam as well, but think enough is enough for today, all so put a loaf on in the bread machine.

apple pie

a quick apple pie for pud tonight, minus a slice for james .

damson jam

doesnt that look scrumptious, and it taste scrumdiddlyumptious as well .
this was from the 5lb of damsons we picked the other day and it made 10 jars.

sunday.

thought id pop in and say hi, not a great deal today, have sorted my sons bedroom out moved stuff around so we can fit a new train track in there, hes having another built for him by his grandpy, on a table this time rather than wheels and on the floor, so we've dismantled the old one and ive packaged it all up to post off to my mums tomorrow. so whilst hoovering after dismantleing decided to move his cube book case to the other side of his room and have a general clear out, sort out and clean. looks far better.

then we went for a walk and picked some damsons 5lb so will be making some jam tomorrow, didnt make any last year as the damsons here were few and far between, but we found a tree just up the road from us, should have gone last week as a lot of them had split, and we could have done with a ladder LOL as some really nice ones higher up. but im very happy with 5lb.

will post some pics tomorrow.

It works

i had a second hand bread machine given to me the other day from paul's little brother peter, i dont think it had ever been used, cleaned the outside and today i made my first loaf in it, a french 2lb loaf, and its done, didnt stick just lifted the bread tin and pop it was out, no scraping inside the tin, no half a loaf left behind, no burnt fingers, no getting cross and nearly flinging it across the room LOL. brilliant id forgotten how easy it was. :-)

awards

Thank you to rainbowwren/onsimplybeing for awarding me the above awards :-)

You can join in as well if you want to, the rules are:-
1. Put the logo on your blog
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you
3. Nominate at least seven other blogs
4. Add links to those blogs
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

i have posted up the following nominees, i love other blogs i visit as well but i know they have already been awarded awards, not sure if anyone here has but havnt seen one on their blogs recently.

allybea

me..and..my..life..(mara)

silversewer..(tootles)

circleoftheyear..(rowan)

thesurburbenhomesteadonthehill...(sandybeth)

renspages..

tabitha1961

there are so many wonderful bloggers out there, and so many wonderful blogs, but i have decided on the above as each are inspirational in there own way, and i love to read and catch up with everyone.

will be sending a note to each shortly.