Sunday 30 October 2016

Trains, boats and planes

We concluded our holiday in north Wales with a lot of slow transport trips.

Horse drawn canal boat trip, train up Snowdon, steam train from Blaenau Ffestinog to coast, walks along canals and over Aqueducts.
Snowdon in sunshine and canal boat on Chirk aqueduct

My daughter in law is Indian but brought up mostly in the UK, and sometimes we have to explain some  English customs. Yes Devi, we are playing pooh sticks. Poo??? (child obsessed mother in the throws of potty training) No not that poo, POOH.  You are all very strange. What?   Us?? 



So did the 2 year old grandson enjoy all this Welsh scenery and culture? No. He is obsessed with tractors, diggers and JCB machinery. He would rather spend time watching the lorry with a crane on it reverse across the canal bridge or men digging up roads. 

He taught me how to find you tube videos on mummy's i pad of tractors!!!

As they left north Wales his parents took him to an air museum to look at planes. You would think he would have had his quota of machines - no, all the way home they had to play spot the digger/tractor!

I spent all week teaching  him to say please and thank you. (That is what Grandma is for).


Buy shares in local hardware store!

On our way home from north Wales to the east coast we diverted to the south bit of Peak district for a "peek" (ooo, pun intended!) at the area. We are intending to visit. Despite low cloud on the fells and busy traffic in the towns it all looked lovely and we also found a super 2 person self catering cottage in Bakewell when we parked and fully intend to have some time away.

This is the weir in the middle of Bakewell town. 

On the other wise boring metal bridge thousands of padlocks had been placed as "remembrances".  Always the pragmatist my husband quickly turned round and suggested we immediately buy shares in the local hardware store as they were obviously making a fortune at £5 to £10 a time out of padlocks!

I was a little disappointed. As he opened his mouth I did, for a fleeting moment, think he was going suggest celebrating our 45 year marriage with a love lock!


Tuesday 25 October 2016

Being treated so well

On holiday with son where we are being treated to food and lodgings and outings! Weather cloudy, a bit of a chill but dry and the trees are fantastic colours.
View from aqueduct

Horseshoe falls
All free natural beauty spots, (free parking and loos) but we are having an expensive treat tomorrow on the Snowdon railway.

Thank goodness for the power of the internet - I just remembered I had not renewed all my library books before we left home but as I had my card in my purse and free access here I was able to log into the account and avoid 5 days at  60p (times 3 for 3 books) fines!  

Some thrifty bloggers were saying they never brought magazines any more. I know I have cancelled my sewing mags now. BUT the library service here in Norfolk allows you to read (on screen) about 12 different magazines for FREEE!!!!! 

Friday 21 October 2016

I'm off!

Welcome to another couple of followers - I will explore your profiles week after next as I am busy packing for a week away.  We are going to North Wales with our youngest son, wife and 2 year old grandson.  Not sure if the rented cottage will have wi-fi to do any internet stuff, but I can't imagine those two without direct access to the WWW as they are true London Yuppies with City jobs and a keen interest in politics!!  They are going to a wedding at the end of the week which is child-free, so we are being taken along (free of charge) as babysitters.

Suspect it will be a bit colder than here so have put all my winter woolies and jeans out. Er, should I be worried that everything I own that is not in the "only for gardening and decorating" will fit into one small roll-on suitcase??  Have I downsized too much? Some of those jumpers have all ready been designated as on their last good year and next year will be in the gardening drawer?

Or have I been seduced by visiting Matalan yesterday where they had some nice stuff.  Went to buy a cheap pair of new jeans (£10), first for a year, and a nightie (£5), first for 4 years, and a pair of new pyjamas for hubby (£14) first for 3 years?

Note to self - must get out to the sewing cabin on my return and get busy. I have cracked the need for blouses but I must develop some trouser making skills!  No need to worry about jumpers - I have not inherited any knitting skills from my extremely talented mother and aunts.

Back soon!




Sunday 16 October 2016

Floating homes

During the recent visit from our best friends we discussed the next stage of retirement for us all. What do we do when we need to stop gardening and they ceased to fly their light plane all round the UK? In the next 5 years they need to downsize from their large city house and in 8 years we will need to give up our large garden.  I was astounded by everyone else advocating bungalow living. I never saw any of us being that conventional!

My current preference is for a floating home. When we were in Kew last week we saw lots of houseboats, some with little gardens on the "poop" decks!



Not all were in good repair - luckily the husband had walked on up The Strand to Kew Bridge (grassy waterside park) before he saw the state of this old steamer!


There is a programme on TV at present looking at floating homes being built in modern styles. Some of them are gorgeous and would give wonderful single storey living.  Could not afford the Thames but there must be some interesting harbours or backwaters in the UK?

Saturday 15 October 2016

Autumn digging

After a dreary cold week with showers today dawned misty, warm and later sunny. 17C at 4.30 pm. So we could not miss out such good weather and accelerated veg bed clearing and digging. This area was dug over, weeded thoroughly (couch grass roots!), rotovated, raked and 3 rows of autumn planting onions and two rows of garlic accompanied by a row of Sweet Williams for cutting flowers in the spring put in.

We work as a team on these tasks except I have to go and get the tea and biscuits!
We moved down the veg bed to the terrible weedy potatoes which desperately need digging up. We did part of one row which gave us one third of a sack for storage and about 10 lbs of red potatoes (Desiree) to use now. The box ones had a lot of holes (wire worm) and damage.


These spring cabbages are really coming on in their protected wigwam. But the flush of new weeds are a nuisance and I had to lift the net and hand hoe round them to keep it in check.
Yesterday I spent some time keeping warm in the poly tunnel where I gut off leaves and sprouts and really stripped back the tomato plants.  I harvested about 10lbs for making soup and puree for the freezer.  The sun today and warmth should bring the remaining ones on a bit more.


Meanwhile down in the flower garden, despite the lower temperatures which have finished off the petunias etc the two fuchsia bushed have suddenly doubled in size and put out loads of flowers.

Hope you are having some lovely days too.


Monday 10 October 2016

Kew Gardens visit

Welcome to new followers!

I am catching up with myself after our long weekend away. Highlight was a day at Kew Gardens where my youngest son, wife and 2 year old joined us for the afternoon (they live in south London).

It was great and I can't wait to go again in another season!  It was £14 each to get in, £1 for a luggage locker for the day and we made the mistake of going in the Orangery for coffee which was expensive. later we joined the family in Four Peaks cafe which was more family orientated and a bit cheaper.

The lake and fountain near Victoria Gate

 The Palm House. the beds were empty ready for winter planting and were immaculate!

 We walked all round looking for the way in, expecting some formal entrance signs. In the end I tried one of the enormous iron and glass doors at random and that was it; you were in! Inside it was hot and steamy and a jungle.
Immediately glasses steamed up, cameras hated it! Husband's went on strike and mine kept turning off in protest.

You can go up spiral staircase to roof and be among the giant palms and bamboos.
My attention was caught by all the food products from these climates - black pepper, mango, sugar cane, bananas, ying yang, ginger.

Outside we wandered under and around the giant trees which were 300 years old plus. 

On the main broad walk we reeled in the perennial beds that have gone in this year. They were on Gardeners World a few weeks ago.  Decided this Himalayan grass was a must to have with our purple Verbena thing too!


Asters! Rudebeckia! wonderful!
 We then visited the Hive. It is a sculpture that has sound and lights reflecting the vibrations/activity in a bee hive somewhere near by. A guide was only too pleased to have a serious discussion with gardeners rather than sighing at the countless children who swarmed (like Bees).

The children loved the central glass hole. Later one of them cracked the glass floor and it was closed for the rest of the afternoon!

 Our grandson's appetite is much better these days and he had a whole cup thing of chips with chicken and a big box of strawberries ( Funny face, think mummy had chilled them a bit too much). His diary intolerance is not holding him back so much now.  The coat is his favourite colour. He is JCB digger insane. He found a mini one down the back where the Temperate house was being repaired and was overjoyed, more so that going on the Tree Top walkway or the Henry Moore sculpture!

 

There was a far amount of running and jumping around for the rest of the afternoon, while my son and I were messing about my camera got knocked across the roadway. That was the end of that. Never mind, we have a spare at home.

And so home - the whole weekend journey involved 2 buses, 8 trains, a tube and a taxi.  When we got off the train we found out our local bus service that runs every 20 mins throughout the day, every day,  has one bus at 6.20 (train missed it by 4 minutes) and one at 8 pm on a Saturday and that is it. What??
.

Thursday 6 October 2016

Blouse for Kew trip

In my new sewing cabin (joy unbounded!!) I have run up this quick blouse using some recycled duvet cover material and a free pattern. It has raglan sleeves and was a quick make. I am so pleased that a size 16 pattern fits me. (It is a mental thing - reading size 18 or 20 on something makes me feel fatter).


I have teamed it with a pink cardi I brought 3 years ago and never worn. I have removed rows of ruffles between the chiffon roses on its front to make it less flouncy. Apart from that it is a lovely silky material and just the right colour. I may end up taking of the roses as well eventually (just not me).

(How do you take a picture without camera being in it? Is that what a selfie stick is for?)

Teamed with a rose printed shoulder bag I feel botanical enough for our planned visit to Kew Gardens!  It is London, it is always hotter than I think it will be and I am learning not to take country weight wear and ending up carrying it round all day.

Wednesday 5 October 2016

Autumn colours

We have been blessed this week with some wonderfully sunny days but there was one or two cold nights so the autumn colours have started to show around the place.  The blueberries did not exactly overwhelm us with berries this year but the foliage today is a marvellous plum red.

The leaves on the cultivated blackberry have just the tinge of red on their edges. There are a few more berries but having about 12 lbs in the freezer I am not anxious to collect them all now.

All our tree fruit was a disappointment this year, but this pear trees leaves against the blue sky has earnt its forgiveness for now!

The sunflowers have lost their petals, but then they trebled in size and made these great big heads. Weird looking but fascinating. They are supposed to be a pollen free variety (for cut flowers) but the bees still go on them.


Further down the garden there is nothing attractive about these sweet peas. They are dead. I had to done some gloves and get going on clearing and saving the seeds and canes for next year.


I am trying to get my husband to grow less but be strict and keep them under control for better flower stems. It will be a commitment of time. Trouble is now his woodworking shed is up and running with full electric, windows and comfort he is hiding in there most days !

Sunday 2 October 2016

Muffins - easy receipe

I always thought muffins would be difficult. They are my cake of choice in a Costa when we are having a treat.  The other day I was collecting the last handful of autumn raspberries and blackberries and wondered what to do with them as they were a bit weak in texture and taste for a pie and not really enough to do anything special with.

I found this simple recipe and stirred in the collected fruit to make 6 of each. I had to cycle down to the supermarket for some muffin cases; they only had boring brown so when I have made 75 (?when, never!) I will try for something more jolly!


You sift together:
9 oz plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
4oz of golden caster sugar
Straight from fridge:you grate 3 oz butter and mix it up with dry ingredients
You add an egg and 6 fl oz of milk.

Lightly combine with a fork (do not over beat)
Fold in 5oz of raspberries (or any other fruit!)
Bake 20/25mins at 200 C in muffin cases in large hole tins (you can do it without but they do hold shape better in the tins).
Sprinkle with caster sugar as they cool.

Mine were a bit pale this time as I had to use ordinary caster sugar and the recipe calls for golden caster sugar. No difference in taste!  I also left the sugar sprinkling off - no need to overdo the "naughty"!

Lot cheaper than Costa!  and quite straight forward.
That's two new cakes I have learnt this month - muffins and carrot cake.

What next - after 45 years of marriage is it time to master a decent fruit cake for Xmas?  My husband's father was a master baker and for the first 20 years of marriage I was forbidden to go near the icon cake making.


Saturday 1 October 2016

Autumn colours

Hi
Welcome to more new followers.

Lots in the garden coming to an end so it was nice to have two new things to brighten the days.
Autumn crocus - given to us by neighbour and popped in a pot last spring. It has been moved out of "storage" now and is close to the house so I can see it!
Further down our field we have a perennial bed which is definitely fading, but in its middle is this delightful clump of asters.
We visited the Welsh Botanical gardens (near Carmarthen) a few years ago in October and admired their collection of asters. I want more of these. Old fashioned but shining like a beacon at present.

The lilac colour reminds me of the colour of my bridesmaid dresses from October 1976. Yes it is our anniversary in a few days. To celebrate we are going away for a few days. On one day we are going to Kew Gardens! I have wanted to go for years and years. So be prepared for lots of photos of glorious plants!